Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1887-12-17

asks what 10 "idberty'? Take the
definition Of your great prophet,
Herbert Spencer, "Liberty is the
freedom of every man to do all that
he wills, providing he does not in
fringe upon the like freedom of any
other man."
Very good. No State Socialist
will object to that in the abstract,
but how to realize it in the concrete
experiences of life Is the question of
questions. How to make this the
general rule of conduct and thus
carry into effect thst epitome of the
moral law-the golden rule-"Do
unto others as you would have them
do unto YOU" for that is what Spen-
GERS definition implies. Shall we
begin at once by reducing collective
action, or as you prefer to term it,
the Governmental Machine" to
zero, j. e., shall we give free play to
individual energies and leave the in
teraction of these forces to determine
the extent of each mans freedom?
Doubtless this abolition of all author
ity would succeed perfectly were all
men equally upon high plane of
moral development. But we are not.
Here are some sixty millions of us in
this country; some strong, others
weak; some intelligent, others stu
pid; and we are all actuated by like
varying motives, some good, Others
bad; some altruistic, others egoistic.
Now, under these conditions given
your unrestrained individual action
to find the amount of liberty enjoyed
by the many ignorant and weak
against the few strong, intelligent and
INSCRIPTIONS, and the answer would
be-nH. Under such a state of
things you must necessarily have
competition and you would come out
just where we came out to-day, with
the many the bond-slaves of the few.
Such being the facts in the premises
we are forced home to the conclusion
that Liberty in the concrete is collat-
eral with knowledge and power, and
that ignorance and stupidity are the
natural correlatio, of slavery.
But you say that if left alone you
would mutually cooperate with 9TH
ers
Very well. In the mutual CO.
operation Of two or more persons Of
unequal force and intelligence there
must necessarily be direction and
contro and consequently subordln-
alton, and what is that but your
hated machine" Show us how
a number of individuals of various
physical and intellectual capacities
and of antagonistic moral qualities
can mutually cooperate in the pro-
duction of wealth, without a precon-
certed plan, without collective con-
troll, specific direction, subordinate
execution and the collaboration and
adaptation of means to ends, and we
will give up our ''machine." But
whilst the whole universe with the
physical organization of man himself
remains in your sense of the term, a
"machine," worked, it is true, by a
spontaneous force, and until that
force which is also generative and
evolutionary has eliminated from
mankind it's brutal egoism and made
us morally whcle-each man becom-
ing law unto himself; until then
we must believe in some form of
social adjustment and cooperation.
Where the weak and ignorant shall
benefit by that true guidance of the
wise and good which is the only pos
sible Liberty to them held as they
are in the awful thraldom of a mora!
blindness more fatal to 'Linerty'
than the despotism Of Nero. Call
this machine" if you Ike, but at
least show us how you can dispense
with it without plunging all human
relations into chaos. W. r. Horn.